PICK & CHOOSE

Reviews of the 2024 Petit Rouge:

89 points, Marcus Ellis, Halliday Wine Companion, December 2024:
Not the Valle d’Aosta variety of the same name, but rather the companion to the Petit Blanc in the range, and also made from muscat: muscat rouge à petits grains. This was fermented cool, matured on lees for six weeks, then carbonated. A pale, peachy pink and redolent of strawberries, musk sticks, talc, rosewater and orange blossom, this is perky and vibrant with fruit sweetness swelling the palate, finishing dry. This is frivolity in a bottle, and more power to it.

90 points, SA Wine Guide 2025, Shanteh Wale:
Nectarine, white plum and lychee juice. A hint of watermelon candy and bergamot. There is a tickle of sweetness but so lightly dolloped, it’s barely perceivable. Instead, you get a wash of running acidity and a lovely prickle of spritz. Fun and flirty. Drink now.

Reviews of 2023 Petit Blanc:

91 Points, Marcus Ellis, Halliday Wine Companion, February 2024:
Muscat à petits grains at the home Sand Road Vineyard was grafted 40 years ago. It was arguably not the most astute move, with muscat in demand neither as fruit nor in bottle. No matter, the suitability to a warm climate fits the house ethos, and the results are more than agreeable. Lightweight but flavourful, with orange blossom, lemon zest, coriander seed, yellow grapefruit and hints of frangipani and magnolia, the palate zesty and mildly pithy, saline with an engaging tonic and lemon barley water note, both in flavour and sharp tang..

92 points, Winepilot, August 2023: https://winepilot.com/story/hither-yon/:
The beautifully named Muscat blanc à petits grains is the basis of the Petit Blanc, and I believe it’s the first time I’ve ever had this grape in a dry form (it’s regularly seen in the sweet French wines Muscat de Beaumes-de-Venise and Muscat de Rivesaltes). Despite its tendency to make “grapey” wines, I found this to be much more aromatic than expected, with distinct orange blossom, lemon and wax characters, and delightful lychee and spice notes that developed with some air. The palate is very zippy, salty and silky, with a slight sourness, and it pairs nicely with cheese (provided it’s not too bitter), heightening the aromatics.

Reviews of 2022 Petit Blanc:

93 points, The Wine Front 2022, Mike Bennie:
Much drier, saltier and crunchy that the decent 2021, this feels a lot more Mediterranean in feel and style. It’s a muscat blanc, made dry, of course, and picked earlier and made to dry. Planted 1980s. It shows the variety calling cards of frangipani and general perfume but with sea spray, alpine herb and tonic water scents. Flavours echo this, it’s tingly, mouth-watering and super fresh with soaring drinkability. Citrusy fresh, briny, long and cool. Takes me to Sicily/Sardinia in a way. So delicious here.

Reviews of 2021 Petit Blanc:

91 points, Halliday Companion 2022, Ned Goodwin:
While it is not on the label, this is straight up muscat à petits grains. Light-weight, beautifully aromatic and palpably dry, this is the sort of wine served as an apero while staring at the Mediterranean, from the Languedoc to the Côte d'Azur. Honey blossom, jasmine, musk, grape spice, dill and a rub of citrus unwind across a talcy palate. Delicious drinking.

90 points, James Suckling 2021, Nick Stock:
Aromas of cut grass, lemon juice and peel and fresh-picked sage make a fresh impression on the nose, as well as lychee and honey. The palate has a smooth, softly fleshy feel with pear pastry. Fresh finish.

Reviews of 2020 Petit Blanc:

91 points, Mike Bennie, Winefront:
What a fun thing from H&Y. And good thing. Cucumber, lemon squash, green herbs. Good scents. Lots of juicy, bouncy fun in the palate. More cucumber, lemon squash, Real Lemonade perhaps, some green apple. Zingy finish whips things tart and clean. Good times. Lots of personality and lots of drinkability."

91 points, Halliday Companion 2022, Ned Goodwin MW, :
"This is fun! Grapey and spicy. Think canned lychee, orange blossom and jasmine scents, all careening along talcy rails of chew and acid freshness. The finish is dry and has plenty of pucker. Drink with gusto."

Reviews of 2019 Petit Blanc:

Adelaide Review 2020, Hot 100 Wines, Light Aromatic Wines:
An intriguing wine with a light aromatic lift, initial savoury aromas are followed by n, orange, and nashi pear. This wine is deliciously weighted with a pleasing phenolic grip and lovely acid.

Reviews of 2018 Petit Blanc:

90 points, James Halliday 2020 Wine Companion:
Citrus and tropical fruit flavours are attractive enough, but the slippery-satiny nature of the texture here makes this pretty white wine enjoyable to say the least.

Reviews of 2017 Petit Blanc:

88 points, Gary Walsh, The Wine Front, September 2017:
Made from Muscat Blanc a’ Petits Grains. I don’t recommend most white wines be served too chilled, but I think this style is best served with a bit of frost on it. Perfumed and musky, kind of light and briny too, with delicate flavour, mainly lemon and lemon barley. It’s got zip and freshness, a bit of fragrance, and it’s VERY easy to smash down with gay abandon. A wonderful wine for summer luncheons, and the like, preferably featuring a sea breeze. I like it, but it is what it is, and that, in this case, is a good thing. The simple things etc.

89 points, Huon Hooke, November 2017:
Pale almost water-white colour and a pungent muscat fruit aroma, which is clean as a whistle and appropriately fragrant. Passionfruit traces. The wine is surprisingly dry in the mouth, like a French muscat blanc sec. As such, it would make a good aperitif wine. A very good, if simple, varietal dry white.

88 points, James Halliday, 1 August 2018:
The fact that its grape variety (muscat blanc à petit grains) might cause people to expect an off-dry wine is neither here nor there, hither or yon. It's fresh, delicate, crisp, dry and faintly lemony.

Reviews of the 2025 Chenin Blanc:

Jacob Barter (Noori) for the Summer (2025-2026) edition of Fleurieu Living Magazine:
Chenin gets cast here as the oyster and sushi whisperer. It's bright and mineral, the acid is high, but there's texture and weight too, with an edge that takes us straight to shellfish, caviar and sashimi. Think Sake energy. The nose has rich fruit of course but there's more to it, ginger and beeswax, rice bran and macadamia. Perfect with oysters, a deconstructed smoked salmon bagel situation (cream cheese, dill, capers) or Ahi poke loaded with sesame, soy and tuna. It's the one you drink at a sushi train when the plates are piling up dangerously fast.

89 points, Marcus Ellis, Halliday Wine Companion, December 2025:
From the Breakneck Creek vineyard off vines grafted in '23. Whole-bunch pressed, then a long cold ferment in tank, with 20% in old oak. The bottle is lightweight and recycled. That’s a good thing. For the environment, and there’s more left in the bottle than it feels. A win-win. Waxy apples, lemon barley water, samphire, ozone and a little nuttiness. It flexes on the mid-palate, though is lighter in concentration. Clean acidity wraps things up neatly.

Reviews of the 2025 Falanghina

90 points, Marcus Ellis, Halliday Wine Companion, December 2025:
The first commercial release of the grape for H&Y, and one of the earlier ones for the region. That’s not surprising, as climate-apt alternative varieties are a linchpin here. And '25 was a year for such things, with the heat turned up. That doesn’t show, with this strutting its cool and crisp charm with confidence. Lime pith, lemon balm, tart pink apple, green peach and a touch of almond. It’s lightweight, with a tangy, snappy finish. Linguine alle vongole, please.

91 points, Shanteh Wale, South Australian Wine Guide 2026, November 2025:
It’s exciting to see Falanghina taking flight in McLaren Vale and to see what
becomes of the fruit in different hands. Here, there are yellow flowers, burnt peach and grated ginger. A whiff of honeycomb and the intensity of jonquil in full bloom. Acidity has been celebrated and kept fresh with the slight candied lime and apple unfurling across the mid palate. A miniscule amount produced, this wine sells out fast, a promising start for the hard to pronounce but delicious to drink variety. Drink now-2028.

Silver Medal, 2025 Australian Alternative Varieties Wine Show.

 92 points, Silver Medal, 2025 McLaren Vale Wine Show.

Reviews of the 2025 Rosato:

91 points, Shanteh Wale, South Australian Wine Guide 2026, November 2025:
Young vines of Sangiovese blended with Aglianico makes for a sensible start to Hither & Yon’s Rosato adventures. Cranberries, red cherries and Pink Lady apple skin. Strings of paper bark and cold peach tea. In Rosato style, it’s dry with some grainy texture. There is some middle palate flesh that plays nicely against the thick ruby grapefruit pith. A lovely way to enjoy brunch, as this wine will work with fruit, fresh cheese and sheets of smoked salmon too. Drink now-2027.

 92 points, Marcus Ellis, Halliday Wine Companion, September 2025:
74/26% aglianico/sangiovese from the home Sand Road vineyard. A burnt orange tone and a savoury cast. Redcurrant and pomegranate, sour cherry, cool peach, rose, rhubarb and red apple skin. This is firmly pitched to the table. More power to that. There’s abundant fruit and flavour, but there’s a linearity of structure, fine tannin and acid in league, intertwined. Bring the food and it will sing.

 91 points, Campbell Mattinson, September 2025:
This rosé-style was made with Aglianico and Sangiovese grapes. This is fresh, juicy and crisp but it also has good spread (of flavour) through the finish, which is always the surest sign of quality. Red cherry, fennel, watermelon and an array of fragrant, Italian herb characters – and a flash of blood orange too – all make for highly enjoyable drinking.

Reviews of the 2025 Fiano:

90 points, Shanteh Wale, South Australian Wine Guide 2026, November 2025:
Dainty with honeysuckle and fields of wild freesia. Lemon sorbet and white tea. There is a sweet pineapple mid palate with acidity that fills in and circulates through the handfuls of fruit. A very pleasing wine that is far too easy to drink. This shows the floral and ripe summer fruits that Fiano is known for, made in a way that delivers immediate enjoyment. Softened edges and destined for colourful salads and prawns. Drink now-2027.

Silver Medal, 2025 Australian Alternative Varieties Wine Show.

 *Red Star Value. 93 points, Marcus Ellis, Halliday Wine Companion, September 2025:
From the Oakley Road vineyard. This the third release from vines planted in 2020. A warmer year than the one prior, and significantly warmer than the one before, but this maintains its line of citric race and lightly saline tang, further underlining the variety’s adaptability to vintage vagaries. Texture’s a thing here. On the quiet, but its moreishly chewy, chalkily grippy, but subtly so. Lime pith and lemon balm, wild flowers and crisp golden apple.

 92 points, Campbell Mattinson, September 2025:
This is a fresh and fruity white wine, for starters, which makes it easy to like. But it’s also a white wine with a slip of satin to its texture, and with subtle hits of grapefruit rind, wax and brine, which give it a bit of extra, and elevate its quality. It’s very good. It’s tasty, it’s crisp, it’s fruity and it’s more.

Reviews of the 2023 Fiano:

15.5+, Max Allen, Jancis Robinson, October 2023:
First crop of Fiano at H&Y, made very simply: ambient-yeast cool ferment, ageing in stainless steel, bottled after nine weeks. That lovely varietal Fiano fragrance – a touch of green apple, citrus and handcream – then a little lean and cool, with a gentle rain of acidity on the tongue. Will fill out in bottle over the next couple of years.

Reviews of the 2024 Fiano:

*Red Star Value. 93 points, Marcus Ellis, Halliday Wine Companion, December 2024:
From vines planted in 2020, this is the second release of fiano at this address. Picked early and wild fermented cool and slow, it spent seven weeks on lees in steel before bottling. Though picked at a frisky point, there’s no greenness, just a citric urgency that is quite compelling. There’s some complexity, too, with dried wild grasses and a hint of spice. The palate is moreishly refreshing, with lemon barley water texture and brisk but not tart acidity. It’s a very fine drink.

Reviews of the 2023 Fiano:

15.5+, Max Allen, Jancis Robinson, October 2023:
First crop of Fiano at H&Y, made very simply: ambient-yeast cool ferment, ageing in stainless steel, bottled after nine weeks. That lovely varietal Fiano fragrance – a touch of green apple, citrus and handcream – then a little lean and cool, with a gentle rain of acidity on the tongue. Will fill out in bottle over the next couple of years.

Reviews of the 2024 Greco:

91 points, James Suckling, June 2025:
Oxidative in style, with aromas of salted nuts, lemons, oyster shells and tea leaves. The palate is medium-bodied with a textural mouthfeel and bright acidity that leads to a phenolic and creamy texture. A really well-constructed and unique Greco. Drink now. Screw cap.

92 points, Angus Hughson, Vinous.com, April 2025:
This golden-hued 2024 Greco is a surprise packet bursting with fruit salad aromas and a strong core of ripe melon and subtle, spicy oak. It’s full-bodied and flavorful, with more exotic tropical fruit tones, waxy, lanolin complexity and classy older oak providing an impressive, extended finish. Drinking window: 2025-2028.

91 points, Stuart Knox, The Real Review, January 2025:
Straw-gold hue, almost amber at the core. Honey, sourdough toast and candied ginger aromas. Full and weighty, beeswax, warm honey, ginger and mandarin notes all fill through the core. Glides with a softness and deep weight then a line of tannin brings tension and ensures the finish is dry. A unique expression that works well.

91 points, Marcus Ellis, Halliday Wine Companion, December 2024:
As with last year, this saw a couple of hours in the press before the free run was drained to tank for a cool ferment; maturation was in old French oak. The deeply golden colour presages a deeply flavoured and textural – slightly oily perhaps, but not overly – wine on a foundation of pithy, pear-like granular tannins and taut acidity. Baked apple and quince, ripe Bosc pear, mustard fruits, ground ginger and mace. It’s juicy and fruitful, but kind of savoury, too.

92 points, SA Wine Guide 2025, Shanteh Wale:
How exciting it is to see a Greco grown on the alluvial sandy site of Hither & Yon’s home vineyard in the Vale. On fine lees for 30 days, transferred to puncheons and 10% through malolactic fermentation. A garden of yellow stone fruits, chamomile, beeswax and honeysuckle. A sweep of kumquat citrus acidity followed by ground cumin, dukkah and white pepper. A touch of brûlée bitters. Such a wine of intrigue and interest, and a great fit for the white wine spectrum of the Vale. Drink now.

Reviews of the 2023 Greco:

*Red Star Value. 93 Points, Marcus Ellis, Halliday Wine Companion, February 2024:
This, saw two hours in the press to ‘enhance’ the mid-palate while also picking up plenty of golden colour. Cool fermentation in tank followed by six months’ maturation in old chardonnay barrels with 10% mlf. Russet apple, Bosc pear skin, raw quince, dried ginger and tangelo pair with a briny and waxy savouriness. There’s ample grip here, making it feel more skin influenced than it is, but the pithy pitch is spot on, working with spirited acidity to add savoury food-friendly intent to the characterful flavour arc.

Reviews of the 2022 Greco:

16.5++, Max Allen, Jancis Robinson, October 2023:
This, the first proper crop of Greco for Hither & Yon, was the last variety they picked in McLaren Vale in 2022 – and still had such high acid that they put the wine through malo and lees-stirred in old barrels for six months to build richness. Looks a little developed, quite golden in the glass (typical of Greco), with textural savoury layers, some mandarin-peel-like waxiness, a delicious combination of richness and underlying citrus cut that should develop in a really interesting way in bottle.

Gary Walsh, The Wine Front, March 2023:
A new wine for H&Y, from vines planted in 2019, but gee, they are doing well. A few hours on skins and then into old wood for malo and lees stirring. Brassy colour. Nutty, saline, floral, tangerine and nashi pear. It’s spicy and offers dusty white pepper tannin, a little nutty/pastry richness, but plenty of juicy tangerine acidity, and a saline finish that’s refreshing and gently grippy. What a great debut. Highly recommended.

Tony Love, InDaily, February 2023:
This wine comes specifically from Sand Road, the southern Italian variety clearly loving its new home. It’s gold to light orange toned, bright and shiny – not cloudy – and is all toast and butter, roasted nuts as well with a slice in there of mandarin peel. The standout here is the textural palate, minerally and tangy with fabulous mouth-watering pithy, peppery tannins. Virtually impossible to describe the finish as it’s impossible to resist a second glass. A wonderful surprise, and will change the white wine game for trad sauvignon or chardonnay drinkers.

Reviews of the 2024 Vermentino:

90 Points, James Suckling, June 2025:
Vibrant and fresh, with aromas of sliced lemons, white flowers, apple blossoms and talcum powder. The palate is light-bodied with focused acidity, a nicely constructed mouthfeel, a fresh finish and underlying concentration. Drink now. Screw cap.

“Top Five Young Gun of Wine Deep Dive: Australia's Best Vermentino ” April 2025

*Red Star Value. 93 Points, Marcus Ellis, Halliday Wine Companion, February 2025:
Picked both early in the season and the morning, this was crushed to tank for a cool ferment on skins for two weeks; pressed to old oak to finish alcoholic fermentation and go through mlf; three months' élevage. Cypress and myrtle, wild grasses, tea tree oil, chamomile, Indian tonic, martini olive, lime oil, Vietnamese mint, preserved lemon, coriander seed and grapefruit pith. It’s a briny, maritime wine – like a botanical-infused aperitif – light of weight with a feathery grip and abundant freshness. This is the second release, and the fundamentals are the same, but this steps up in poise and balance. Very good.

Reviews of the 2023 Vermentino:

92 Points, Marcus Ellis, Halliday Wine Companion, February 2024:
Low in alcohol but quite deep in colour. This was fermented cool for 14 days on skins, with free-run juice matured in old French barrels for six months. It’s the first vermentino for the Leask brothers, and it’s a distinctive iteration, with pine needles, pepperberry, myrtle, coriander seed, candied lemon peel, fennel fronds and a Lillet blanc/dry vermouth vibe. Chalky phenolics are preceded by a classic saline slip and a surprising depth of flavour for the ripeness.

Reviews of 2022 Cabernet Sauvignon:

91 points, Shanteh Wale, South Australian Wine Guide 2026, November 2025:
A mix of blackberries and some pops of rosella and persimmon. Cedar, tree bark and a haze of Aussie bush. Some brown earth and gumnut. An endearing moment of red fruit, which takes us straight to the Vale, is very welcome, both on the nose and palate. This feels designed for both drinking now and medium-term cellaring. It’s also smashable, not something we say every day about Cabernet but can, depending on where it’s from. This is a humble wine at its price but full of vigour and varietal pleasure. Drink now-2032.

*Red Star Value, 93 points, Marcus Ellis, Halliday Wine Companion, September 2025:
Mainly from the Hillenvale vineyard that edges from McLaren Vale into the Adelaide Hills, with about 18% off the home Sand Road vineyard. Matured in four- to five-year-old oak. Mulberry, currant, hedgerow, violet, cedar and iodine. Some classic regional cabernet things, but there’s also an ease of delivery, a sweep of texture and finely wrought tannins, with the drinkability factor high – not always the variety’s remit. It’s a calmly progressive take on the grape, and it works very well indeed.

90 points, Campbell Mattinson, September 2025:
This is a light- to medium-weight cabernet with boysenberry, blueberry and redcurrant flavours flowing attractively into mint, violet and vanilla. It feels fresh throughout and drinks easily and well as a result.

Reviews of 2021 Cabernet Sauvignon: 

90 points, Angus Hughson, Vinous, July 2023:
The modern 2021 Cabernet Sauvignon McLaren Vale focuses on drinkability and does it well. Mulberry bush and dark cherry aromas with a solid herbal undertone provide a vibrant start. Fleshy fruits, balanced acidity and well-weighted tannins with a savory, cedary finish of good length define a juicy palate. Solid and ready to go.

92 points, James Suckling:
A bright and vivid array of blueberries, redcurrants and blackcurrants with elements of bracken, leaves and hints of chocolate, too. There’s a plush, supple feel to the palate. Medium body. Red plums and cherries throughout. Drink or hold. Screw cap.

Reviews of 2020 Cabernet Sauvignon:

91 points, Halliday Companion 2022, Ned Goodwin MW:
Good-drinking cabernet at the price. Jubey, relatively soft and easygoing, without being anodyne. The extraction of 16 days seems deft in lieu of the bright attack, tannic detail and lithe, crunchy finish. Red-fruit aspersions, some garden herb and green-olive notes round out the package.

91 points, James Suckling 2021, Nick Stock:
Aromas of redcurrants and cassis with black cherries, as well as leaves and forest wood. Some florals, too. The palate comes filled with fine tannins that carry plenty of red and dark-berry flavors. Fresh, mid-weight style.

Reviews of 2019 Cabernet Sauvignon:

94 points , The Real Review, Huon Hooke:
Deep red colour with a strong purple tint. The bouquet is reserved but fresh and cabernet-berry-ish, with a lovely core of fruit sweetness at the centre surrounded by abundant soft tannins. The palate is full-bodied and elegantly cast, with classic cabernet structure and firm tannins completing the picture. The finish is refreshing. This looks to have a bright future. An excellent cabernet and astounding value.

91 points, Halliday Companion 2022, Ned Goodwin MW:
Stock-standard regional cabernet for those seeking a full-bodied red with few surprises. This oozes mint, dried sage, bitter chocolate and cassis scents, all slung over a frame of French oak and fuzzy tannins.

Reviews of 2018 Cabernet Sauvignon:

91 points, James Suckling:
Aromas of graphite, cassis and mint as well as mulberries and forest leaves. The palate has a very rich, intense core of dark cherries, blackberries and cassis. Bold, drinkable style.

Reviews of 2017 Cabernet Sauvignon:

Gold Medal at the CWSA 2017

93 points & red star value, James Halliday, August 2018:
A supremely honest McLaren Vale Cabernet, with warm blackcurrant fruit and a cache of dark chocolate, alongsidey the tannins that will emerge with age.

92 points, Gary Walsh - The Wine Front, June 2017:
Dark fruit, chocolate, a sweet dried herb lift, almost a Dutch liquorice thing too, which I love. Medium bodied, good depth to the fruit, though not heavy either, with oak in the back seat, and drinking pleasure at the wheel. Finish has a Cabernet accent, in with a gentle herbal seasoning, and no shortage of length. So well done.

93 points, Mike Bennie - Wine Business Magazine. May 2017:
This release from the creative set at Hither & Yon strikes a chord. There's a generosity to the wine, it reeks of dark plums, mocha, green herbs, dried fruits and the palate takes a similar path. The distinction here is that the flavours find a brightness even with the weight of deep, dark fruit character, and oak seasons rather than smothers. Generosity reigns well here.

Reviews of 2014 Cabernet Sauvignon:

91 points, James Halliday - Wine Companion, August 2016:
Definitive cabernet aromas hold sway, regional influence playing its part and oak chiming in. Evenly flavoured on the palate, the typical firm cabernet structure in good balance with the typical McLaren Vale generosity.

91 points, Gary Walsh - The Wine Front, August 2016:
Has a pleasant, jubey sort of Throaties® perfume, blackcurrant, blackberry and the like, with subtle spiced oak. Medium bodied, again a little jubey, but nicely done with gummy grippy tannin, freshness and energy, and a cool earthy and black olive laced finish of pleasing length. Very nice.

91 points, Wine Enthusiast (USA), March 2016:
The pitch black wine has a thin dark ruby rim.The attractive and forward nose smells of cassis, sweet spices, sugarcoated walnuts and dates. The palate layers on baked blackberries, pencil lead and dried figs. Moderately long on the finish, this wine is feisty, and youthful. Its strucutre of lightly strappy tannins, brisk acidity and its wealth of well proportioned aromas and flavours point to ageing potential. Drink now through to 2020.

90 points, Stuart Robinson, www.thevinsomniac.com, August 2015:
There's just something about the Hither & Yon wines, be it visual appeal, relative ease on the pocket, approachability without sacrificing varietal character. Consistent. That too. Cherry ripe-esque: mass of fruit over chocolate, without eschewing varietal character. Per the Hither & Yon style, a wine of easy going nature; medium-bodied elegance, suggestion of blueberry and bright fruit in general. So easy - and pleasurable - to drink, not an easy feat to achieve.

Reviews of the 2023 Shiraz:

90 points, Shanteh Wale, South Australian Wine Guide 2026, November 2025:
Fruit is from four separate blocks in the Eastern Foothills of McLaren Vale. The elevation brings with it a blue-tinged aroma, bilberry and blackcurrants. Butterfly pea flowers and poppyseed. Its bright lines of acidity and some chewy tannins keep the wine lively. There is a pocket in the middle palate filled with black sesame; it stands out for its unique flavours and shape. Drink now-2028.

*Red Star Value. 93 Points, Marcus Ellis, Halliday Wine Companion, September 2025:
In the mix of future-proofing varieties, McLaren Vale’s most planted grape – and by a significant margin – is shining ever brighter at this address. No imperious flagship bottlings here; more taking the moderately weighted food-friendly angle, as with their climate-champion grapes. Tart boysenberry, black cherry, violet, Earl Grey tea. It’s got some pep from the cool year, finishing energetically. It’s a delicious iteration.

90 points, Campbell Mattinson, September 2025:
This is fresh, fruity and well balanced. It offers plum and red cherry flavours with subtle infusions of toast, chicory and smoked herbs. It’s not a big wine but nor is it underdone; it walks an attractive, well-fruited line, and is a good red wine to drink as a result.

Reviews of the 2022 Shiraz:

91 points, James Suckling, December 2024:
Black cherries, black beans and roasted herbs on the nose, followed by a full-bodied, fleshy and fine-tannined palate. I like the savory herb undertones to the black fruit. Drink now. Screw cap.

*Red Star Value. 93 Points, Marcus Ellis, Halliday Wine Companion, June 2024:
From the brothers Leask, who largely specialise in climate-apt grapes, this is compelling value from an old-school hero variety. It's the right balance of juicy and savoury, with black cherries, blackberry, spiced plum, white pepper, leather, anise, rocky iron notes and hardy herbs, the palate silky, underwritten by finely tuned tannins, guiding but not interrupting the flow. Very nice indeed. *Red Star Value.

90 Points, The Real Review, January 2024:
Youthful in the glass. Aromas of dark fruits, spice, dried herbs, graphite and a whiff of eucalyptus. Full flavoured, chewy and dark fruited. Plum, mulberry, spice and cedar are all at play and the tannins are firm and savory.

94 Points, The Vintage Journal Summer Wine Guide 2023:
Medium-deep crimson. Fresh blackcurrant, blackberry aromas with hints of marzipan and spice. Inky deep and sinuous with plentiful dark berry fruits, marzipan, hint ginger notes, fine al dente tannins, very good mid-palate volume and fresh long mineral notes.

Reviews of the 2021 Shiraz:

92 Points, Angus Hughson, Vinous, February 2023:
The 2021 Shiraz is a hearty expression from McLaren Vale, delivering good levels of flavor and complexity. There is an attractive impact of new leather and blackberry aromas with a nice dose of ironstone. Fleshy mulberry and olive tapenade flavors follow with satisfying density and ripe tannins on the finish.

92 Points, Andrew Caillard MW, The Vintage Journal, December 2022:
Medium deep crimson. Bush garrigue, red cherry, red liquorice, roasted walnut aromas. Supple cherry pastille, cranberry fruits, fine chalky, al dente textures and underlying roasted complexity. Drink now, keep for a while.

91 Points, Ned Goodwin MW, 2022 James Halliday Wine Companion:
Picked across a number of parcels for a panoply of varying textures and flavour profiles. Scents of dark cherry, tea tree, mint and green peppercorn. Iodine and a swab of tapenade, too. This is good drinking for the money. Flavour, poise and refreshment in spades, with a lithe tannin profile tucking in the seams for savouriness over fruit.

90 Points, Wine Advocate 2022, Erin Larkin:
This 2021 McLaren Vale Shiraz is juicy, buoyant, pure, bright and delicious. It is exactly (and I mean EXACTLY) what you look for when picking up a value Shiraz. This is a cracking little wine. It's not complex - and I'd drink it young—but it is layered with all the minerals and bouncy fruits you could want, and then some.

Reviews of the 2020 Shiraz:

93 Points, Halliday Companion 2022, Ned Goodwin:
This is very good regional Shiraz, implementing a controlled chord of reduction to constrain lilac, cracked pepper, clove, charcuterie and blue-fruit accents. Fine tension. Compelling length. The lushness of the Vale iterated almost as a cooler-climatic expression. Fine-boned tannins and savoury spice inflections. Versatile at the table.

91 points, James Suckling:
"Attractive blackcurrant aromas and hints of leaves. There's a real blue-fruit edge to this shiraz. The palate has quite a brisk, assertive feel with smoothly delivered blueberry and blackcurrant flavors."

Reviews of previous vintages:

95 points, James Halliday 2020 Wine Companion:
Oh come all ye faithful lovers of McLaren Vale shiraz. It's hard to say whether the variety or the region is the most important - and true - contributor to the depth and outright richness of this Shiraz. The tannins also ring true to the theme, leaving no doubt about its longevity.

93 points, James Halliday 2019 Wine Companion:
It delivers a solid whack of dark berried flavour. This is a sure-footed wine, well-balanced and finished, with fluid delivery of coffee cream, blackberry, plum and choc-mint flavours. From start to finish, it keeps you satisfied.

91 Points, Gary Walsh, June 2017, The Wine Front www.winefront.com.au:
Blackberry, smoky grilled meat sprinkled with pepper, a bit of purple flowers or something like that. Medium bodied, flavoursome, almost slurpy, but a bit more in it than that, with light tannin, spice and dark fruits, and a tidy finish. Lovely wine, drinking very well young. Doing a good job of it here.

90 Points, Huon Hooke, March 2017, www.huonhooke.com:
Deep red/purple colour and a ripe, concentrated, deep-fruited aroma and palate flavour. The texture is soft and easygoing. Peppery blackberry and dark plum aromas. Concentrated, rich, soft and rounded. A very smart shiraz for one so young.

Reviews of 2024 Sand Road Grenache:

95 points (Top Rank), Huon Hooke, The Real Review, December 2025:
Medium-deep red with a faint tint of purple; the aromas are shy and offer dried herb and dried cherry nuances with an overtone of dry earth. It's full bodied and firm, the tannins coating the mouth's interior and completing a seriously full-bodied, ample wine with abundant drying tannins and a sense of gravitas. This is good now and will reward some cellaring: 2025–2037.

93 points, Shanteh Wale, South Australian Wine Guide 2026, November 2025:
An enticing wine filled with toffee apple, cherry syrup and raspberry compote. A touch of bay leaf and sage. The palate delivers those welcoming red fruits in line with some astutely dry tannins that wash over the palate to reveal terra cotta, clay and hazelnut cream. It’s a magical concoction that invites you in with some red fruit confection but stands tall in its structured and tailored frame. A savvy wine and great value. Drink now-2030.

Reviews of 2023 Sand Road Grenache:

90 points, James Suckling, June 2025:
A juicy, fruity and easygoing grenache. Strawberries, bay leaves and baking spices on the nose. It’s medium-bodied with melty tannins. Playful and silky, with a fruity, crunchy finish. Drink now. Screw cap.

91 points, Angus Hughson, Vinous.com, April 2025:
This well-pitched 2023 Grenache starts off a little shy with gentle aromas of cooked cherries and dusty spices with older oak in play. Juicy and vibrant, it displays ample, fleshy red fruit and strong earthy tones, building to a finish of solid length. Drinking window: 2024-2028.

*Red Star Value. 93 Points, Marcus Ellis, Halliday Wine Companion, February 2025:
Sand Road vineyard, planted in '09 to alluvial sands, silty clay and gravel. Destemmed and open fermented at coolish temperatures for two weeks; raised in older French puncheons. Old vines are the buzz with grenache, and for good reason, but lovingly farmed young vines can also have striking results. And the Leask brothers do nothing if not farm well. Savouriness and tannin may not be the first thing to expect from younger vines, but here they are. Dried cranberry, wild raspberry, Earl Grey tea, dusty earth, baking spices. It hits mid-weight, with no sweet spot – a good thing. Rather, the fruit is wrapped up in a food-apt tensioning of chewy grip and clean acidity. Distinctive. Good.

92 points, SA Wine Guide 2025, Shanteh Wale:
Matured for 14 months in old French puncheons. A bright, pure ruby hue in the glass. Aromas of rosehip, red cherry and blood plum juice. A strawberry roll-up or two. Dried thyme and sage leaf. A cascade of elevated acidity and fine but powerfully dry tannins. This will wake up your taste buds and come alive with some fatty meats or a charcuterie board. Keep an eye on this site and wine; there is plenty of promise here. Particularly for the structure those gritty tannins give to the final product. For now, this is a steal at the price. Drink now–2027.

Reviews of 2022 Sand Road Grenache:

94 points, Decanter, David Sly, January 2024:
All high-toned cranberry over sunny cherry, but then slinky tannins pull a tight line. Texture and tone become the central focus before a pillow-soft landing. Great control and poise from this admirable, high-wire balancing act.

91 points, The Real Review, January 2024:
Medium-deep red-purple colour with a lift of volatile acidity which also comes through on the palate. Taut, firm, lean and a little austere. Intense, focused palate flavour. Probably not volatile enough to worry most drinkers but it would be better with less. It's quite a muscular wine which should have a solid cellaring future. A good decanting and aeration helps.

92 points, Winepilot, August 2023:
There’s always something special about McLaren Vale Grenache, and I enjoyed this one a lot. It’s bright and juicy (and particularly vibrant with food), showing lots of red and black fruits (wild strawberry, raspberry, blackberry, black cherry, stewed plums) and some spicy cinnamon and black pepper. Give it some time to breathe and it will express itself confidently, both on the first night and the second.

Tony Love, InDaily February 2023:
From the Leask brothers’ youngest Grenache vines at 13 years old, crafted into a youthful, fragrant, bistro style with 20% whole bunch influence in the winemaking that offers a subtle sappiness in the palate. While you are being seduced by its floral aromas and freshly squeezed plum and apple juiciness, you should pause for a mo, as it has plenty to offer in its textural game, lip-smacking and with an appealing spicy/peppery tannin profile in the palate and finish. Bistro, yes, and very food conscious as well – its own crew suggests pairing it with the vegetable and cheese pasty from the Willunga Bakery.

Reviews of 2023 Grenache Mataro:

91 points, SA Wine Guide 2025, Shanteh Wale:
Matured for 14 months in old French puncheons. 70% Grenache and 30% Mataro. A real mix of blackberries, red cherry and pomegranate. The wine has a stirring ripe herbal nuance, like creeping ivy over a wild rose bush. Acidity has kept crunchy and vibrant with understated oak rounding out the closure, Mataro giving the wine that little speed hump of flesh on the middle palate. A clever wine that would please a Pinot drinker all the way to a Shiraz drinker. Drink now–2027.

Reviews of 2021 Grenache Mataro:

92 points, James Sucking, April 2023:
Bright, youthful and crunchy with aromas of red cherries, raspberries, pink peppercorns and white pepper. Medium-bodied with vibrant acidity and fine tannins. Peppery and wild finish. 70% Grenache and 30% Mataro. Delicious now.

92 points, Angus Hughson, Vinous, February 2023:
The 2021 Grenache and Mataro blend really delivers thanks to an expressive and generously fruited style radiating with black cherry, baked earth, red currants and older oak with a classic touch of McLaren Vale old iron. The palate is beautifully pitched - mouth-filling flavors and al dente tannins are superbly balanced to deliver genuine power and length.

93 points,  Andrew Caillard MW, The Vintage Journal, December 2022:
Medium deep crimson. Strawberry, red cherry, blueberry, bubble gum hint aromas. Sweetly fruited wine wine with ample red fruits, supply velvety textures and fresh indelible acidity before finishing crunchy and long. Very good viscosity and mineral length. Drink now to 2026.

91 points, Wine Advocate 2022, Erin Larkin:
The 2021 Grenache Mataro is composed of 70% Grenache from the Hunt Road vineyard and 30% Mataro from the Sand Road vineyard. This is great! It is vibrant, nervy and fresh, with a skein of tannin that courses through the fruit. The acidity is briny and makes for juicy drinking. Well played.

Reviews of 2020 Grenache Mataro:

93 points, James Suckling 2021, Nick Stock:
Strikingly bright and fresh raspberry aromas here with wild herbs and bracken, as well as leafy tones. Lively red and blue fruit sits concentrated on the palate. A fresh blend of 70% Grenache and 30% Mataro.

90 points, Halliday Companion 2022, Ned Goodwin:
Hand picked, with a smidgeon of whole bunches (10%) in the 70% grenache. The oak, all used barriques. Sweet floral aromas segue to Turkish delight and kirsch. White pepper, Seville orange zest and clove lace the long finish. Sappy, crunchy and yet, a bit sweet.

Reviews of 2019 Grenache Mataro:

92 points, Winefront by Mike Bennie:
From good folks comes a good wine of good grapes from two good vineyards. Tension is the first thing that came to mind. This ain’t no blousy red. No, indeed, it sits on train tracks of tannin and acidity, a good bite of amaro tang and amongst all that some jubey, blackcurrant fruitiness. Perfume is mild but floral-leaning with dashes of peppery spice. It’s a wine that has you sit up straight and pay attention. It’s a bit serious, but good in that way. Medium weight, svelte, tense. Good stuff.

Reviews of 2018 Grenache Mataro:

James Halliday, Wine Companion, January 2020, 95 points and top value wine:
Classic southern Rhône Valley style, with the wild herbs and spices of the garrigue giving pleasure in the rims of aromas and flavours alike. It will be hard to keep your hands of it, but it could be a knockout with more time in bottle. 14.5% alc.

92 Points, James Suckling:
Bright, red-fruit fragrance here with some darker berries in the mix, too. The palate is crisp, succulent and juicy, as a good young grenache should be.

Mike Bennie - WBM March/April 2020, 93 points:
There's a really lovely marriage of sweeter fruit gamey, earthy characters in this wine. I like the general sense of detail in the wine too - sheets of fruit character layered on spice, savouriness and a fresh pool of acidity. It feels quietly complex but wildly drinkable.

Reviews of 2017 Grenache Mataro:

James Halliday, Wine Companion, August 2018, 94 points and red value star:
Superb colour; at maximum turbocharged revolutions, but the power is smoothly delivered across the palate. Because the balance is very good, this richly endowed wine will repay cellaring particularly well.

Mike Bennie, WBM July 2018, 93 points:
Lovely stuff. Fragrant with musky-spice, raspberry and cranberry scents. The palate does a similar turn and sits squarely in a medium wieght wine zone. Some heft to the flavours but the finish is a bell ring of clean acidity. Appealing as. 14.5%, $27.

Decanter World Wine Awards (2018). Silver Medal. 93 points. www.decanter.com 

Reviews of 2016 Grenache Mataro:

Andrew Graham, Oz Wine Review, June 2017, www.ozwinereview.com:
The Leask Brothers are switched on growers and these wines typically show plenty of sunny generosity (if sometimes a little heat). The blend here is 60/40 Grenache Mataro; a good mix. Lots of juicy black and red berry fruit. Lovely. The tannins have a real sandy Grenachey shape to them (but with a licoricey oomph). Palate is silky smooth, slightly syrupy but really quite satisfying in its curranty flow, a big luscious wines that is very young, but exuberantly so. It could do with another year in bottle to integrate the bold flavours a little, but the flow of red fruit is undeniably attractive. Very well priced too. Best drinking: 2018-2028. 17.7/20, 92/100+. 14.5%, $25.

Gary Walsh, The Wine Front, May 2017, www.winefront.com.au:
60% Grenache, 40% Mataro. I don’t have a feel for 2016 in McLaren Vale, as yet, but so far, I like what I see. A hearty red, but one that’s not too heavy. Red fruits, some floral perfume, slight confectionary notes, but tapered in with dried herb. It’s medium bodied, juicy and savoury at once, with a rub of sandy tannin, fresh red fruits, and a gently bitter amaro herb and earthy aftertaste. This goes all right. Good drinking here. 91 points.

Huon Hooke, April 2017, www.huonhooke.com
Deep red/purple colour, the bouquet black cherry, spices, firm tannins and good body weight. A nicely judged kiss of oak. Balanced and complete. 90 points.

Stuart Robinson, May 2017, www.thevinsomniac.com:
Nigh on pitch-perfect 60/40 blend of two listed players. There's just something so wickedly, consistently, deliciously moreish about H&Y reds. This no exception, it extracts a juicy, jubey aromatic without straying too far towards confection. Call it an allure, call it what you will, inviting is what it is. Slipping around the palate with ease in its easy going, red fruited nature. There's more juicy red fruit, a slip of tannin providing an edge, a framework to carry. Mataro brings up the rear, it's bassy foundations adding length, substance, spice. 91 points.

Reviews of 2015 Grenache Mataro: 

August 2016. 90 Points. Huon Hooke. www.huonhooke.com
Spicy, sweet cherry, confectionery aromas. The palate is tight and lean with firm, fine tannins and a pleasant after-grip. A good, clean, bright wine of some depth. Very smart wine.

August 2016. James Halliday, Wine Companion. 92 Points:
Aromas and flavours are both savoury and sweet-fruited with raspberry, chocolate, and mulchy notes in the mix. Well integrated tannin and acid keeps things fresh and in order.

May 2016. Max Allen, Australian Gourmet Traveller:
Top Drops of the Month, No 1. "heaps of juicy red berry-fruit flavours, but there is also a delicious gutsy earthiness-like sweet black composting leaf litter-that sets it apart.

March 2016. Stuart Robinson, www.the vinsomniac.com.au, 91 points:
A 60/40 blend of Grenache and Mataro respectively, and 100% McLaren Vale. Raspberry, red fruit, some wild herb/garrigue thing with a choc-raspberry-fudge milkshake. Trust me, it works. Juicy, a little dark fruit, chocolate, fine tannin; palate enlivening acidity that brings back the wine full circle. There's fruit in abundance, a little savoury tickle, good length. Another stellar wine.

February 2016. Winsor Dobbin. www.winsorschoice.blogspot.com.au:
This is a fabulously accessible blend of 60% grenache and 40% mataro – the ripe, sweet grenache fruit melding with the earthy funkiness of the mataro to produce a beautifully balanced red that is designed for immediate enjoyment. No need to cellar this one; just put some gourmet sausages on the barbeque and you have a wine/food match made in heaven.

February 2016. 90 points. Gary Walsh. www.winefront.com.au:
Good stuff. It’s crisp and perky, almost Italianate. Raspberry rope, strawberry, dried herb perfume. Medium bodied, crunchy and fresh, red fruits, light sandy tannin, more red fruits on the finish. Almost a ‘volcanic rock’ kind of thing going on. Nice to see a McLaren Vale wine that so bright and ‘food friendly’.

Reviews of the 2024 Tempranillo:

91 points, Marcus Ellis, Halliday Wine Companion, September 2025:
From the House and Creek Blocks, about two-thirds and a third respectively, the former raised in older oak, the latter in steel. Exuberant with dusky florals, cherry, wild raspberry, dark forest berries, anise and cola. It's all quite fleet of foot, flavour-packed but modest in weight. Tannins are aptly, varietally incisive, the acid somewhat more direct than the grape often yields, but the impression is one of engaging, food-friendly drinkability.

Reviews of the 2023 Tempranillo:

91 points, James Suckling, December 2024:
Youthful and fresh, this has notes of raspberries, red cherries, white pepper and paprika on the nose, followed by a medium-bodied, lithe and lightly peppery palate. Drink now.

Reviews of the 2021 Tempranillo:

90 points, Ned Goodwin MW, Halliday Companion 2022:
An everyday quaff, suggesting that handling of this early ripening variety is getting better. Bing cherry, iodine, lilac and lavender. The tension is serviced by reduction as much as a verdant lilt and vanillin streak of gentle tannins.

92 points, Nick Stock, James Suckling 2022:
A mid-weight red that has good purtity of blueberry and cherry fruit with a faint floral and white-pepper edge. Holds a sleek and succelent stance in the mouth and delivers a vividly fresh squeeze of tannin through the finish. Drink over the next 3 years. Screw cap.

Reviews of the 2020 Tempranillo:

92 points, Nick Stock, James Suckling 2021:
A wealth of blackcurrant, blueberry and violet florals that are really expressive and sweetly fragrant. The palate has a tautly fitted frame of tannin that carries juicy blue-fruit flavor. Fresh and crisp.

Best in Australian Tempranillo' - Young Gun on Wine:
AThis made the top-six lists of five tasters, with Wren placing it first on his sheet, while Andrew had it just one place back. Forbes, Jones and Infimo also rated it highly. “Cherry cola on the nose coupled with lifted red fruits such as cherries and plums – reminiscent of a summer berry pudding,” wrote Andrew. “The line of acid and tannin provide energy on the palate and carry the vibrant fruit which presents as juicy and moreish on the mid-palate."

Reviews of the 2019 Tempranillo:

92 points, Jane Faulkner, James Halliday Wine Companion, August 2021:
A lot of pizzazz packed into this with its cherry-accented fruit, sarsaparilla and woodsy spices. It's medium-bodied, juicy with firm tannins and a slight green edge on the finish means having this with food.

91 points, James Suckling:
This is a bold, vivacious style with plenty of deep-set blueberries and cassis and a smooth and bright, juicy palate that carries a long band of bright, blue-fruit flavour.

Reviews of the 2018 Tempranillo:

95 points, James Halliday 2020 Wine Companion:
"Full of flavour, texture and life. This is about as full-bodied as tempranillo gets and, even better, it comes dressed in velvet. Plum, black cherry and cola flavours sweep through the palate in convincing fashion. Fine-grained tannin stitches the finish into a neat package. It's good."

92 points, Gary Walsh, The Wine Front:
(Posted on 09 July 2020) "It would appear we are a little late on this one, as I note, while grabbing a bottle image, that they’re on to the 2019 on their web shop. Oh well. Come hither. Cherry and plum, a little earth, BBQ sausage, and spice. It’s medium-bodied, with pleasingly sooty tannin, ample fruit and balanced acidity, a bit of sweet strawberry freshness in the mix, and a nice long even finish. What a charming wine it is. Speaks of region and grape most eloquently."

2019 Australian Alternative Varieties Wine Show - Bronze Medal "Bright red fruit strawberry and fine powdery tannins. Soft juicy and within the frame of the varietal fruit with balanced plushness and fine tannins. Cherry ripe, chocolate. Nice crunch tannins. Exotic flavours reminiscent of an Icelandic picnic."

Reviews of 2017 Tempranillo:

James Halliday, 07 August 2018, www.winecompanion.com.au
"Full, bright hue; red and black cherry on the bouquet lead directly into the palate before savoury tannins try to take a grip on proceedings." 89 points

Mike Bennie, WBM, May/June 2018, 92 points
"A more serious-feeling Tempranillo than expected with concentration and richness on its side. Perfume is appropriately floral, rose hip tea- imbued and shows whiffs of choc- Turkish Delight, while the palate is more mulberry sweetness and a dash of clove/cinnamon spice. Some real glide here too. 14.5%"

Andrew Graham, Australian Wine Review, May 2018, https://www.ozwinereview.com
"Another varietal ‘17 Vale red from Hither & Yon team. Molten, dark berry nose – it’s not Rioja but gee it’s expansive and thick fruited with that southern McLaren Vale inky density. At first I thought this might be too ripe and slick sweet, but the tannic depth and wafts of choc berry carries this forward. A genuinely substantial McLaren Vale Tempranillo. Best drinking: Wait a year or so to see it at its best and drink in 10. 17.5/20, 91/100. 14.5%, $27."

Australian Alternative Varieties Wine Show, November 2017:
Gold Medal, 95 points

Reviews of 2016 Tempranillo:

93 points and red value star, James Halliday, August 2018:
Made from two pickings, almost 3 weeks apart. Open fermented, whole berries and bunches, and 6 months in French oak. Unequivocally varietal bouquet, with lifted aromas of fresh cherry, blueberry, and cola extract, spliced with a more savoury element. Fresh, juicy and flavoursome, but moderated by the fine tannin. Delicious.

90 points, Huon Hooke, February 2017:
Deep, young purple/red colour. The wine is full-bodied and fruit-driven on the palate with bold, bright young flavour and soft but persuasive tannins. The wine is very young and primal but very good. Balance and mouth-feel are excellent and it just remains to be seen what some bottle-age might bring.

90 points, Stuart Robinson, www.thevinsomniac.com, December 2016:
"Delicious Joven style: jubey, juicy, fruits of the forest mix. The kinda wine you want to sink your head into: cooling, calming, intriguing, inviting. There's a darker edge to the palate, a light rub of tannin. Medium bodied, a twist of aniseed - lush fruit. Strikes this balance between downright simplicity, with a little dark underbelly. Would easily handle a summer-necessary chill.

2015 Tempranillo reviews:

Mike Bennie. WBM Magazine. May 2016. 93 points.
"This is Tempranillo marching to its own beat. Neither joven nor Riserva, it's a slurpy, slippery, medium weight thing that shows choc-cherry and anise characters in perfume and flavours, lushness of fruit and a lightly sandy finish. It's seriously great drinking and could take a light chill too."

91 points, Wine Enthusiast (USA), March 2016:
Dark cherry in colour with black infections at the core, this wine has a pleasantly vinous nose of pomegranate seeds and blueberries. Sweet spice and perk acidity invigorate the medium bodied palate, while supple rounded tannins hang in the background. The finish lingers with cinnamon-dappled raspberry pie flavors. Even if only moderately complex, this wine is incredibly easy to sip. Drink now through to 2018.

91 points, Stuart Robinson, www.thevinsomniac.com, March 2016:
Savoury, woody hints, flashes of blue fruit, a little black cherry. In the house style: a juicy fruit-bomb, not lacking in a little savoury depth - a second pick of fruit comprising 12% of the wine was allowed a little extra hang-time, with some whole bunch inclusion - a little acidic reach into the corners of the palate. A light rub of tannin, some black licorice and a little bitter cocoa. Juicy, moreish, another winner from the H&Y team.

Huon Hooke, March 2016:
Deep red colour with a trace of purple. Dark cherry fruit pervades the bouquet, becoming chaffy with airing, while the palate is ironstony and firm, straightforward and plum-pippy, ending with a trace of bitterness. A pretty good temp.

88 points, Andrew Graham, March 2016:
Juicy red fruit, wet brick Temp varietal characters, then more raspberry and cola fruit with a little earth. It’s a nice 'joven' style this, all fruit, minimal oak and light sandy tannins. Slurpable, juicy wine, if a tad simple. Best drinking: 2017-2021.

Trophy: Best McLaren Vale Wine - "The Bushing Monarch"

Trophy: Best Mediterranean Variety Red Wine

Trophy: Best Wine of Show

Trophy: Best Red Wine of Show

Trophy: Best Nero d'Avola

Gold Medal

Max Allen, Australian Financial Review, 23rd November 2017, www.afr.com:
This is a bloody ripper of a young red. No wonder it won three trophies (including best of show) at this year's AAVWS. It has a gorgeous saturated colour, heaps of voluptuous, seductive berry fruit, supple grippy tannins crying our for some garlicky charcoal-grilled lamb, and a lovely vibrant freshness about it, despite the 14.5% alcohol. Moreish. Delicious. Goes on sale soon at the Hither & Yon cellar door.

Adelaide Review, Hot 100 Wines 2017/2018:
Fruit Forward Reds; "Uber-fragrant and lithe. Whisk this one off to a picnic and enjoy on a super fancy rug.

Trophy: Best Red Wine of Show.

Trophy: Best Italian Red Variety.

Trophy: Best Nero d'Avola.

Gold Medal.

August 2016. James Halliday - Wine Companion. 90 Points:
Attractive juicy red berry flavours; the wine doesn't need any oak amelioration; good length.

Reviews of the 2021 Grenache Touriga:

16.5/20, Jancis Robinson, September 2023: https://www.jancisrobinson.com/tastings/268754

"Beautifully fragrant, the natural spicy, floral qualities of both varieties complementing and enhancing each other; crunchy red berries on the tongue, more spice, vibrant and savoury, with a touch of sour dark-cherry pip on the finish." (MA)

92 points, Wine Advocate 2022, Erin Larkin:
"The Touriga imbues this 2021 Grenache Touriga blend with a backbone, a deep well of concentrated fruit and layers of firm tannins. The Grenache swims through all of it, leaving a trail of raspberries and peppercorns in its wake. Lovely wine. Great stuff here.Vibrant."

90 points, Halliday Companion 2022, Ned Goodwin MW:

"The touch here, more refined with this vintage. Nice drinking. Grenache's pinosité playing rhythm to T aromatic and peppery vibrato. The wine just needs a juicier chord across the mid-palate. Rose petal, lilac, smattered Mediterranean herb and cherry soda. Energetic and effusive of flavour. A prosaic, eminently drinkable wine destined for the fridge."

92 points, James Suckling 2022; Nick Stock:
"This blend sees the sheen of touriga elevate grenache and also twist it a shade darker. More blue and purple fruit than red seen here, and there's a very handy sense of concentration and purity. Gentle layer of liquorice to close. Drink now. Screw cap."

Reviews of the 2020 Grenache Touriga:

92 points, Halliday Companion 2022; Ned Goodwin MW:
"A vibrant, floral and full-weighted red with a skein of peppery freshness and frisky tannins that belie the weight; more savoury and mid weighted as a result. Black cherry, cinnamon, violet, purple gummy bears and sassafras. There's a smoky riff across the back end, but it fails to detract from the freshness, drinkability and imminent appeal."

91 points, James Suckling 2020, Nick Stock:
"A complex and youthful blend, this shows aromas of blue fruit and flowers with red berries and cassis, too. Seamless. The palate is bright and dynamic, with a smooth build. Layered, with supportive, crunchy acidity."

91 points, The Real Review, Huon Hooke:
"Medium-depth of purple/red colour, fresh and bright. The aromas are fresh and fruit driven: red cherry and raspberry, while the palate is medium-bodied at most and pleasantly intense with good drying tannins balancing the fruit. A delicious juicy-fruit style, made to enjoy young, but I’m sure it will also age well."

Reviews of the 2019 Grenache Touriga:

95 points, Jane Faulkner, 2021 James Halliday Wine Companion:
"What appeals is how the fruit does the talking. Winemaking merely the guide. Made in a fresh, drink now style yet with some depth and shape thanks to its grainy tannins and savoury overlay. Delicious."

90 points, James Suckling:
"Attractive raspberry and papaya aromas here with red plums and blackcurrants. The palate has crisp, chalky texture and fresh red-berry and red-papaya flavors. Juicy-fruit finish."

90 points, Mike Bennie, The Wine Front:
"Bright and vivacious style, feels fresh, berry fruited, pretty and decidedly sweet. Sweetness sticks in the craw a bit but you get the feeling this bottle won’t last long around the right crowd. A neat chomp of gummy tannin does good for some balance, too. Fun!" 

Reviews of the 2018 Grenache Touriga:

93 points, James Halliday 2020 Wine Companion:
"The fancy of freshness. Raspberry, spice, strawberry pie and anise notes fly attractively through the palate, charming as they go. It's a 55/45% blend; it saw no new oak (40% was kept in stainless); the flavours and scents burst merrily from the glass. It's a lovely wine. Serious quality, fun style."

2019 Drink Easy Competition:
"Ripe, plush plums, cherries - fat juicy summer red fruits. The acidity is here and strong but flexible tannins keep it fresh as. Delicious drinking."

Reviews of the 2023 Grenache Carignan:

91 points, Shanteh Wale, South Australian Wine Guide 2026, November 2025:
Mulberry, Christmas cherries and blackcurrant. Fig leaf and black peppercorns. A marriage of red and black fruits with some lightness that dances on the palate; this becomes quite the refreshing number with a few sips and it could handle a very slight chill in the summer months. There is a garrigue of herbs and growing things, some green peppercorn bite. A befitting wine for peppery herbs or a loaded salami and rocket focaccia. Drink now-2028.

92 points, Marcus Ellis, Halliday Wine Companion, September 2025:
Off grenache (60%) vines planted in 2009 and carignan (40%) in 2014 from the Sand Road vineyard. This, the first release, is very much in a bistro weight. The buoyant red-berried grenache is lively and juicy, with carignan adding scrubby herb and spice notes, the enthusiasm of the former balanced but not quelled by the latter. It’s an appealing wine, with a zippiness to the finish that will see it work nicely with so many foods, from lighter vegetable plates to fattier meat dishes.

Reviews of the 2024 Mencia:

90 points, Shanteh Wale, South Australian Wine Guide 2026, November 2025:
An inky pigmented wine with solid black fruit at its core, cassis and blackberry soothers. Some bay leaf, kombu and soft liquorice. An upbeat line of acidity and some powdery tannins. This makes for a wine with purpose and intrigue. It finishes with tar and a crumbly black rock minerality, some plum skin and bitter coffee granules. Drink now-2028.

Silver Medal, 2025 Australian Alternative Varieties Wine Show.

90 Points, Silver Medal, 2025 McLaren Vale Wine Show.

“Top Five Young Gun of Wine Deep Dive: Australia’s Best Mencia” July 2025

91 points, Marcus Ellis, Halliday Wine Companion, June 2025:
This is the first mencía release from estate Sand Road vineyard vines planted in 2021 to Christies Beach Formation: alluvial sand, silty clay and gravel. This was gently extracted over 12 days, then saw eight months in neutral oak. There’s a bit of tannin here, pithy, skinsy, teeth-coating tannin. Not too much, but certainly needing food. The wine is generally pulpy and bright, floral with juicy wild berries, blackberry pastille, raspberry coulis, a little tar and cherry cola, kind of slurpy and fresh, but again demanding food, with a fine seam of acidity also guiding one to the table.

Reviews of the 2024 Pinot Noir:

91 points, Tony Love and Cyndal Petty, South Australian Wine Guide 2026, November 2025:
From the Hillenvale Vineyard on the western border of the region, the colour is darkish for the variety, with a fruit sweetness in the aroma along with familiar woody notes, even a faint mint/eucalypt waft. Very Australian. The palate has black cherry fruit and peppery spice in the right proportions, with sensible grip in the finish. A riper style that works its charms. Drink now-2030.

90 points, Marcus Ellis, Halliday Wine Companion, June 2025:
From the Adelaide Hills side of the Hillenvale vineyard, which bisects the Vale and Hills GIs. A spicy and relatively savoury affair, albeit with a good slosh of vibrant red fruits. Cherry, strawberry and sour redcurrant, Earl Grey tea and dried orange rind, a crackling twigginess, a brush of bracken, some cassia and caraway. It’s got ready appeal, and some appealing sour-fruited tension keeping the energy up.

Reviews of the 2023 Pinot Noir:

91 points, Marcus Ellis, Halliday Wine Companion, April 2024:
From the Hillenvale Vineyard (at around 390m), which has the GI border of McLaren Vale and the Adelaide Hills slashing through it; this comes from the Adelaide Hills side. A little whole bunch, 10% new oak. Pale red in the glass with aromas a little muted at this early stage, but with air, bright red cherries, redcurrants, a little musky/rosy note and some appealing twiggy, mulchy elements build. This is nicely refined and quite pretty, with an appealing savouriness to fruit and structure. A little longer in bottle will quell the slight edginess.

Reviews of the 2022 Pinot Noir:

91 points, Gary Walsh, The Wine Front, March 2023:
From a vineyard in Kangarilla about 390m above sea level, planted in 1999. Dark cherry, cardamom, dried roses, mint, an earthy/mushroom thing happening. It’s juicy and a little sappy, some ripe tomato and pomegranate, a slight chinotto bitterness through ripe cherry, light emery board tannin, and a firm finish of good length. Fruity and savoury, and good to drink. I like it.

92 points, Halliday Wine Companion 2022, Ned Goodwin:
Hand-picked. De-stemmed to 100% whole berries for an open fermentation. Élévage in older French wood for 7 mths. Straight-shooting Hills pinot with telltale notes of sandalwood, dark cherry, bergamot, rhubarb and sarsaparilla. These can get too sweet at times but here, handled with aplomb. Mid-weighted, lithe and expansive. Far from cerebral, but quality drinking at a fair price.

Reviews of 2021 Leask Shiraz:

5 stars, 95 points, Aaron Brasher, The Real Review, January 2024:
Inky, dark and opaque in the glass, an impressive colour. Deep, dark and brooding aromas of plum, blackberry, bramble, cedary oak, dried herbs and anise. Powerful, plush and concentrated in flavour. Plum, mulberry, blackberry and sweet oak flavours are all at play in a very decadent way. The tannins are firm and shapely and work well to tame the opulent fruit.

Reviews of 2018 Leask Shiraz:

95 points (gold), 2021 The Real Review, Huon Hooke:
A lovely, dark, impenetrable purple in the glass. Black cherry, olive tapenade, iodine and dried herbs are the features of the aromatics. There's plenty bubbling away here, quite evocative. Powerful but balanced flavours of dark plum and black cherry, there's also some 70% cacao chocolate and creamy oak adding structure, texture and mouthfeel. The tannins have an obvious presence ensuring all that power is focused and the length is long, firm and serious.

93 Points, WineFront, Mike Bennie:
Top flight wine from the good folks at Hither & Yon. Powerful red, deep and dark. Brooding and feels like it’s just a wee baby. Ripe plum, sticky salted liquorice, woody spice, truffle and earth. Big and bold. Throaty and warm. Dark chocolate tannins all powdery and assertive. Done well, no missing this wine.

93 Points, James Suckling, June 2021:
Very attractive red berries and cherries here with some earth and chocolate too. The palate has a smooth feel with plush, gently grainy tannins carrying long. Approachable.

90 Points, Royal Adelaide Wine Show 2020.

Reviews of 2016 Leask Shiraz:

James Halliday, Wine Companion, August 2018, 94 points.
This must have come from a very special site, with no frills vinification. It is medium to full-bodied, with exceptional mouthfeel, velvety but not the least heavy, the role of oak limited. It all works well. 26 years old vines, hand-picked, open-fermented, matured in used French puncheons for 18 months.